Sleeping Beauty
Pantomime in rhyme. Playing time: fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on production, songs used etc.
Available from the author.
Click here to request further details or to order a free reading copy.
Spinning-wheels have been banned – but evil fairy Convolvulus tricks Princess Rosamond into using a spinning-wheel on her seventeenth birthday, telling her that it is a beer-making machine. The Princess and all her court fall fast asleep.
One hundred years later Prince Charming arrives – with faithful friend Dandini. Can he force his way through the brambles and bindweed? And what will the Princess think of him when he wakes her up? Or – being a teenager – might she be a bit annoyed at being disturbed?
10 characters: Narrator, King, Queen, Honeysuckle, Clematis, Wisteria (three good fairies), Convolvulus (an evil fairy), Princess Rosamond, Prince Charming, Dandini, plus (almost non-speaking) christening guests and courtiers.
Artwork by Simon Bond
Script Extract:
Narrator: But look! Who's here? It's a handsome Prince -
Although his accent might make you wince,
He's tall and handsome; there's no-one braver.
Could he wake the Princess? Can he save 'er?
Prince: You know, I could give a two-hour lecture
About this frightful architecture.
It's like an appalling carbuncle
On the face of a well-loved aunt or uncle.
Dandini: We didn't come to admire the vaulting.
You're supposed to be assaulting
The battlements. Beyond the mess
We're told there is a fair Princess.
Prince: Look at those brambles. If you're inclined, we'd
Better tackle this dreadful bindweed.
And the roses here need dead-heading.
Dandini: You're supposed to be planning your Royal Wedding!